I just started playing Uncharted 2 today. After an absurdly long install time (read blog here), I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I really want to like this game. After playing the demo and seeing the ridiculous amount of GotY awards it won, I'm really excited. Admittedly, with such high expectations, I'm bound to be underwhelmed, but what I've seen so far isn't great.

First of all, the game starts off with a lot of platforming and some stealth, two things I'm not a huge fan of. The problem I have with stealth is that its usually frustratingly hard, or the AI is absurdly stupid. Uncharted 2 takes the latter approach with incredibly stupid guards that are apparently deaf and very very narrow sighted. There was another part where there were a ton of guards with laser guided guns aimed at me and they never took any shots.

Also, since I recently played Assassins Creed Brotherhood, the platforming feels pretty weak. Although the game has great graphics, some of the platforming animations are pretty bad. For example, if I jump and I almost make it, Nathan might just offset himself a foot forward so that he can grab the ledge. Its a minor issue that probably is only showing up because I played AC Brotherhood so recently, but its there.

Also, so far the story is pretty lame. It has some really stereotypical movie tropes. For example, there's a scene where a seemingly blank piece of paper had some hidden information that was only revealed after putting the paper over a flame. Its trying and succeeding to be a cheesy Hollywood blockbuster.

I really hope this is just temporary. I liked the demo and most of the videos I've seen of the game involved more action and shooting than I've played so far. I'll probably post a "My take on Uncharted 2" blog when I'm done but until then I'll just have to hope for the best.

So recently I've been a little down on Microsoft. With no good exclusives coming out soon, my hard drive filling up and the impending doom of having to buy a new one, my friend's Xbox red ringing after the 3 year mark and having to buy a new one, and the $10 price increase of Xbox Live, I was getting pretty frustrated with the Xbox. I still use it as my primary console but only because I think the controller is much better than the PS3's.

But things are changing. I haven't played my PS3 in a while. I moved to college in August and left my PS3 at home, so today is the first time I'm turning it on in 4 months. So I've taken the Xbox 360 for granted. I just bought Uncharted 2 which I've been dying to play and as I type, I'm still waiting for the install to finish. It shouldn't take this long to play a game. Its fucking ridiculous. As much as I hate Microsoft, this is nuts. Its half way done and I've been waiting for over 10 minutes. You'll never see anything like that on the Xbox 360. I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes for an update to Xbox Live, and believe it or not, I had grown to expect a new game to just play when I put it in my console. Goddamnit Sony, I was just starting to love you. That is, until I started using your shitty console again.

This is basically inspired by IGN's wishlist article. What do you want to see happen in 2011? Remakes or sequels to your favorite games? Awesome developers working on a specific game? For me, I really wanna see any new information or confirmation of Half Life 2: Episode 3, Star Wars Battlefront 3 or Fallout 4.

This somewhat relates to my blog about used games here. I didn't want the blog to get too long and there's enough to say about Project $10 that it warrants its own blog. So here goes.

In case you didn't know, Project $10 is this: Every game comes with some content that is unlocked by a code that can only be used once. This means that if you buy the game new, you enter the code and you get that content. If you buy the game used, that means the code has already been entered by someone else, so the content isn't available to you. Instead, you have to pay $10 to get that content. Originally, the content was meant to be a multiplayer pass which allows you to play the multiplayer mode. Now, the content is sometimes single player content too.

The goal is to prevent people from buying used games. As I said in my other blog about used games, developers don't get money for used games, so this is a way to get people to buy the game new, or if they do buy the game used, to still give the developers some money (i.e the $10 spent for unlocking the rest of the content).

There's a lot of issues here so lets start. First of all, I primarily use Xbox Live, which means I already pay $50 a year to play online. Its now $60, and although I won't be paying it anymore, a lot of people will. That means that after paying $50/60 a year to play online, we're now expected to pay another $10 to do so. That seems ridiculous.

Second, it depends a lot on the content. If its content which is removed from the game and then we're charged for it later, its ridiculous that we should pay more for it. Games are already too expensive and this is just a tricky way to make us pay more for the same content while ensuring that the additional cost of the game is digital, so it will definitely go to the developers. If the content has already been made, why not just throw it into the game.

Third, the goddamn codes. I don't want to come home with a new game and before I do anything I have to throw in a 25 character code. Or if I buy a used game, I don't want to come home and find out that after my purchase, there's more content which I wasn't given.

Fourth, misinformation. Does the average gamer know about this? Are they aware of these codes? What about content which is advertised on the box and then isn't on the disk?

In the end, Project $10 is a way to encourage people to buy new games, as if to punish us for buying used games. This is incredibly frustrating because, as I said in my last blog, (here again) games are already too expensive and we shouldn't be punished for buying used games.

I've heard a bunch of people talking about how unfair the used game market is. In case you didn't know, the way it works is that Gamestop will buy back games from people and then sell them and make money. For example, if a game just came out for $60 and I buy it, I can go back to Gamestop the next day and trade it back in for around $40. Then Gamestop will sell this as a used copy for $55.

Quick note: DO NOT SELL YOUR GAMES TO GAMESTOP. THEY RIP YOU OFF. EBAY AND CRAIGSLIST ARE THE WAY TO GO

Anyway, the problem is that if I walk into a store and buy a used copy of a game, the developer gets none of that money. It goes straight to Gamestop. This may seem unfair but let me explain why it isn't.

If I buy a game, it is now my property. I have the right to do whatever I want with it. If I choose to sell it to Gamestop (seriously, DON'T sell your games to Gamestop), then that's my choice. And if Gamestop pays me $40 for my property, then that property belongs to them. That's the way it works with any product, and games are no different. So if Gamestop then sells that game for $55, shouldn't they be allowed to keep the entire $55? The game has left the developers hands and now its just Gamestop and consumers trading their property around. When I buy a car and then sell it, I keep the entirety of the selling price. None of it goes to the car manufacturer. If Gamestop manages to make money off of used games because people are dumb enough to sell their games to Gamestop, who are we to say thats unfair?

My second point is that if developers want to prevent used games sales, they should make better games. Give me a reason to keep my game. Make it longer, add a worthwhile multiplayer mode ("worthwhile" being the key word there), give me some good DLC (I say "good", because I don't mean taking content out of the game and charging me for it a month later to make me hold on to the game).

Third, games are fucking expensive these days. I can't afford to hold on to every single game I play. Especially when its 10 hours long and has a lackluster multiplayer mode that I'm not gonna play. I would say I'm a relatively hardcore gamer, and I probably play at least 2 hours a day (especially now that I'm off school). That means a 10 hour game will last me 5 days. Should I be spending $60 every 5 days for a new game? Even $60 a month is a shit ton of money. I pay $30 a month and I can have unlimited internet on my phone. $15 a month and I can watch as many movies as I want on Netflix. Can you really blame people for trying to save money on games? No. So we shouldn't feel bad that we buy games used or sell back our old games. If developers don't like used game sales, they should make their games more valuable. Either add quality/content, or make them cheaper.